A trial court’s decision was reversed early in June for failing to strike a juror based on her nonverbal behavior. The Fifth District Court of Appeal held that a juror being “not particularly engaged” during jury selection was a legally sufficient race-neutral reason to strike the juror. Travelers Home and Marine Ins. Co., v. Gallo, 2018 WL 2448799 (Fla. 5th DCA, June 1, 2018). At trial, after concluding voir dire, […]

Earlier this week, in a medical malpractice wrongful death trial in Gainesville, the defense lawyers did a very thorough job questioning the prospective jurors during voir dire. Below are a few of the questions they used to evaluate the panel from the defense perspective. Defendant, Mrs. X, represents the hospital. She has a right to be in the courtroom. She has a right to defend herself. She says she didn’t […]

A first-degree murder conviction was reversed last month due to the trial court imposing arbitrary time limits during jury selection. In Hopkins v. State, 2017 WL 2983284 (Fla. 4th DCA, July 12, 2017), the trial court advised counsel, for the first time at the beginning of trial, that each side would be limited to three hours for voir dire to question the venire of fifty jurors. This equated to approximately […]

Earlier this year the Florida Supreme Court approved changes to the standard Juror Questionnaire, Form 1.983. There are currently only two standard juror questionnaires approved for use in civil trials by the Florida Supreme Court – Form 1.983 and Form 1.984. Form 1.983 is entitled “Prospective Juror Questionnaire” and Form 1.984 is entitled “Jury Voir Dire Questionnaire.” Form 1.984 is a shorter questionnaire intended to be sent to prospective jurors […]

The Florida Rules of Civil Procedure have been amended by the Florida Supreme Court to remove the limit on the number of alternate jurors in civil trials. Effective January 1, 2017, Rule 1.431 has been amended to read “The court may direct that 1 or more jurors be impaneled to sit as alternate jurors in addition to the regular panel.” Currently the rule imposes a limit of two alternate jurors […]